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How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance


Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.

If you do need a phone for coordination or as a way to call friends or a lawyer in case of an emergency, keep it off as much as possible to reduce the chances that it connects to a rogue cell tower or Wi-Fi hot spot being used by law enforcement for surveillance. Fight for the Future’s Greer cautions, however, that the accuracy of the most effective face recognition tools available to law enforcement remains something of an unknown, and a simple surgical mask or KN95 may no longer be enough to defeat well-honed face-tracking tech. “I think it's important to say that protesting in the US now comes with higher risks than it used to—it comes with a real possibility of physical violence and mass arrest,” says Danacea Vo, the founder of Cyberlixir, a cybersecurity provider for nonprofits and vulnerable communities.

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